The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Cheap Chicks

Often go to Hell in a hand basket. Sigh.

Tip Of The Day: I was GOING to report back to you about Covered in Dinkytown, but no. No, they weren’t open today at noon, even though their sign said they were supposed to be. So instead, I checked out a cool local bead store on Diamond Lake Boulevard, called Beadhive. And not only were they OPEN, they offer free beading classes. Yes, FREE. The magic word.

Tip For Tomorrow: Let us all savor the possibilities of Saver’s. In short, I’ll hit up one of my favorite thrift stores.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal: Like I said, I trucked down to Dinkytown today to look at the aforementioned Covered, which I had just read about in my Lucky Magazine. It was not yet open when I got there at 11:55 AM, so I killed some time next door at the Gopher’s paraphernalia store. Not being a U of M fan, I wasn’t tempted by their maroon and gold merch.

At noon sharp, I went back to Covered. Not open. I checked my voice mail, to kill more time. Still not open. I checked with the boys running the Jimmy John's next door. Nope, they had no clue where the proprietors were. And at 12:07, as the door remained resolutely locked, I stomped off in a huff.

And that’s when it hit me, boy am I OLD. I worked myself up into a self-righteous, indignant huff because the staff was running a few minutes late. ‘These kids today have NO SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY,’ I thought. ‘If the store is supposed to be OPEN and a CERTAIN TIME, then by God, it should be OPEN. SLACKERS,’ my thoughts continued. ‘I hauled my cookies ALL THE WAY DOWN to Dinkytown for NOTHING. GOD.’

Yup, I’m getting old – and a tiny bit crotchety, too.

But I wanted to write something, anything, about a local store that has good prices. So I skibbled down to Southwest Minneapolis, which is littered with tiny boutiques. And that’s where I found Beadhive – right where I left it, on Nicollet Ave. and Diamond Lake Road.

Beadhive sells beads. And as I have stated a billion times before, I am not crafty, therefore, I do not bead. So why would I want to buy beads?

But oh! Beadhive's beads are all so shiny and pretty and neatly arranged. And they look to be reasonably priced – no single bead was over $7 (that I could see). And most sell between the 10-50 cent range. I know you have to buy a big bunch of them, but I think you can get all your beads and bead accoutrement for less than $20 per item of jewelry.

Plus, if you make jewelry for yourself, you get EXACTLY what you want. How many times have you looked at a sparkly something and thought, ‘if only it had more X, or less Y.’ (See how I worked Algebra in there?) With Beadhive, you buy what you want and make what you want.

Beadhive had beads on sale AND on clearance, too. But best of all, they offer an intro to beading class. FOR FREE. So non-crafty types like me can go and LEARN how to be crafty. FOR FREE. All you pay for are the materials you use during the class.

Their next class, called Beading 101, is January 14th, from 6 to 7:30 PM. I feel the call of those shiny beads, and I think beading just might be the crafty thing I am capable of doing. On my own. Without conning my friend Larue into doing the crafty thing for me. Again. Like I usually do.

Where To Shop: Beadhive is located south of Diamond Lake Boulevard on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. You can also check out their web site at: www.beadhivebeads.com.